


Close Calls

by wematch



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Hospital, M/M, Post-Canon, Secretly Married, andrew will be fine, injured Andrew, married, very brief mention of the past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-26 15:16:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14404842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wematch/pseuds/wematch
Summary: Andrew is injured at the beginning of a game by a former Raven. When Neil arrives at the hospital three hours later, some of the Foxes are already waiting for him. But none of them are quite expecting the secret Neil reveals when he gets there.





	1. Chapter 1

Neil’s journey to the hospital is a blur. Although he drove as fast as he could, he was still three hours away, three long hours away that felt like an eternity the whole drive.

Matt who lives in the same city as Andrew and had gone to watch the game with Dan. He’d called Neil when they got to the hospital, but since they wouldn’t give him any details, Neil still has no idea how Andrew is.

Once Neil enters the hospital he walks straight to the floor where Matt told him they were. He starts to walk towards the desk in the lobby when he notices Matt and Dan getting up from the chairs and walking in his direction. Neil ignores them; he needs to know how Andrew is. He needs to see that he’s alright.

Once he reaches the desk, he stops in front of a nurse writing on a patient sheet. “Excuse me, I’m here to see Andrew Minyard.”

She glances at him and then starts typing on a computer. “What’s your name and relation to the patient?”

“My name is Neil Josten,” he says, “ and I’m his husband.“ He hears Dan gasp behind him at the unexpected information and Matt cursing by her side, but at the moment he doesn’t care. This wasn’t really a secret; it was their lives and they didn’t have to share everything with the others. “Now, can I see him?”

For a few agonizing seconds the nurse doesn't respond while she looks at Andrew’s file. “He got back from an MRI an hour ago so I believe he’s not awake yet, but you can still see him.” She gets up and adds, “please follow me.” Neil does and when they enter the bedroom Neil freezes near the door, and clenches his fists in an attempt to gain control over the emotions running through him. Andrew looks bad - his Exy gear was not made for direct contact so the hits he suffered caused real damage.

“I’ll ask a doctor to come talk to you about his injuries,” the nurse adds before she closes the door behind herself, leaving the two of them alone.

He walks to Andrew’s side and inspects his face. He has a cut on his cheek, and the skin near it is turning purple, but Neil knows that that just scratches the surface of all the damage he’s suffered. After hitting Andrew from his back and knocking him down against the wall, the previous Raven kept hitting him anywhere he could reach until the other players stopped him. Neil has never seen a player hit another even before the game started. But clearly former Ravens will never forget who they are.

To calm himself, Neil closes his eyes and counts to ten in his head in three different languages. The urge to get out of here, to find the bastard who did this and tear him apart how his father people taught him is almost overwhelming. The dark thoughts, however, are immediately discarded when the door opens and a doctor comes in. Neil watches her out of the corner of his eye while he focus on Andrew, on his chest slowly moving up and down indicating that he’s still breathing. Still fighting.

“Good evening, I’m Dr Mackenzie,” she says, and when Neil only glances at her to acknowledge that he's listening, she continues unbothered by the lack of response. “Mr Minyard has suffered quite some damage, dislocated shoulder, some broken ribs, and head trauma.” She pauses briefly letting her words sink in for a moment, but then sends Neil a tentative smile before she resumes speaking. “But the MRI showed that there’s nothing to be concerned about, so he’ll make a full recovery.”

Neil takes a deep breath, because he spent the last hours worrying how bad his state was since he saw Andrew’s head hit the plexiglass wall on the TV and pass out. “When is he going to wake up?”

“In a couple of hours,” she says. “It's quite late so you may return in the morning to see him if you like.”

Neil nods and returns to look at Andrew. He’s not going anywhere, he’s staying right here until Andrew can leave the damn hospital with him. “I’d rather stay here.”

“Very well, I’ll see you in the morning to check how Mr Minyard is. If you need anything, there will always be a nurse at the front desk.”

When the doctor leaves, Neil brings the chair to the bed and sits as close to Andrew as he can. He replays the words the doctor said to him over and over in his head to calm himself but it doesn’t quite work. He’ll only believe Andrew is going to be alright when he opens his eyes to stare back at him.

Neil keeps an eye on the door as he stares at Andrew’s broken figure by his side until his eyes start to close. He tries to fight back the exhaustion as long as he can but he feels drained after all that happened, so eventually he lets his head rest on the bed next to Andrew’s arm and falls asleep to the sound of the beeping machine that signals Andrew’s heartbeat.

***

Neil is a light sleeper, so when he feels a slight movement on the bed he wakes up. Once he opens his eyes and straightens himself into the chair, he notices the sun just starting to rise in the window in front of him. And after a second he notices that what woke him up was Andrew starting to move by his side. He immediately turns to focus on Andrew, who is slowly blinking his eyes to try and gain consciousness.

“Andrew—” Neil starts, to gain his attention, fails, clears his throat and tries again. “Andrew— hey.”

At the sound of Neil’s voice, Andrew turns to focus on him at his side. He tries to move his hand to reach Neil but barely moves an inch before he grimaces in pain caused by the movement.

Neil slowly reaches for Andrew's hand instead, careful not to touch the IV in it, and grabs his hand for reassurance. “Try not to move okay? You dislocated your shoulder.” Andrew nods and closes his eyes to mask his pained expression. Neil squeezes lightly his hand before he lets go. “I’m going to get a nurse to check up on you.”

Neil gets up and rushes to the front desk and stops in front of two nurses talking to each other. “Can someone check room 2148? Andrew’s awake and seems to be in pain.”

“I’ll be right there,” one of the nurses tells him.

Neil thanks him and rushes back to the room, but stops when he notices the pile of Foxes sitting in the hallway chairs. He forgot all about Dan and Matt. What really stops him however, is that Nicky and Erik are also here as is Allison, and they’re all looking exhausted when they look up at him in search for answers. “He’s going to be fine,” Neil tells them and resumes walking to Andrew’s hospital room. He can hear them all rushing to get up to follow him even though they aren't allowed.

Nicky is the first one to reach the room pulling Erik with him. He freezes near the door at the sight of Andrew, making Erik push into the room to let the others in. “Shit, Andrew you look bad.”

“Fuck,” both Dan and Matt swear when they enter the room followed by Allison, who closes the door behind herself and stops near Dan with her arms crossed.

When Andrew stares blankly at all of them and doesn't say a word, Nicky steps closer to him looking like he wants to evaluate the damage himself. “He’s going to be fine,” Neil repeats firmly, noticing how tense Andrew starts to look at the proximity of his cousin.

“Stop saying fine, that could mean anything coming from you!” Nicky tells him looking worriedly at Andrew, but stops walking in his direction and turns around to face Neil again.

Neil can’t help but roll his eyes. “The doctor said he’s going to make a full recovery. Better now?”

“Yes, that sounds—"

“Shut up, both of you,” Andrew interrupts them. He tries to look annoyed but grits his teeth and doesn’t say anything else.

Neil noticing the pained look on Andrew’s face walks to his side and asks quietly, “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been through worse,” Andrew tells him dismissively.

It’s the truth, Neil knows it, but hates it all the same. They’ve been through enough already. “I’m going to kill him.”

“Revenge is for the weak willed,” Andrew points out.

“I don’t care,” Neil says with a serious tone. “It’s not like you won’t set the score with that fucking—”

“Neil,” Andrew says as a warning.

But Neil is too pissed off to let this go so easily. They keep staring at each other, and he doesn’t care that the others are witnessing this. Andrew’s little regard for his own life is almost the same as when he met him. And from time to time, Neil needs to remind him that he cares about him and will stop at nothing to protect him, just like he knows that Andrew would do the same if the situation was reversed.

Allison clears her throat before she speaks.“Sorry to interrupt, but now that we know that Andrew will be fine,” she says the last word making air quotes that make Matt snort, “can we just address the elephant in the room?” she says, looking both intrigued and annoyed at them.

Neil confused as to what Allison is referring to, breaks eye contact with Andrew to look at her.

“Yeah, how the fuck are you two married?!” Nicky asks as soon as he notices Neil’s confused expression.”I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” he adds, sounding hurt.

Neil sighs.He knew that they would not be happy when they found out about it. “It’s not like that,” he says simply.

“Not like that? You either are married, or you aren’t,” Nicky says.

Before he answers, Neil glances at Andrew and sees him currently glaring at his cousin. “Yes, we’re married; but it’s not like that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Matt asks.

“Can’t we talk about it later?” Neil asks, running a frustrated hand through his hair. “We didn’t do it for the party or the symbolism of it,” Neil clarifies in a weak attempt to make them shut up, and he’s met with confused expressions from all of them.

They got married because it made sense; what they have is so much more than a name on a paper. It wasn't what defined their relationship, so Neil didn't really think it that relevant. He considered it a means to an end, and it had proven to be handy already since it allowed them the right to take care of each other in situations just like this one.

“What—” Allison starts, but she stops when the door opens behind her and the nurse enters, followed by the doctor.

“It’s still not visiting hours so I’m afraid I’m gonna have to ask you all to leave,” the doctor tells them when she notices how many people are in the room.

“Yes, of course,” Dan says, grabbing Matt to bring him with her and the others start to follow her lead. On her way out, Allison gives Neil a piercing look indicating that their conversation is not done yet.

Neil doesn’t move away from Andrew’s side as the doctor checks up on him and the nurse gives him some pain killers. He notices how Andrew tenses when the doctor examines his chest but doesn't say a word to stop her. Then she fills him in on his injuries and the recovery process he’ll have.

Once they finally leave, Neil moves closer to the bed and looks at Andrew’s hand currently in a fist at his side. He slowly reaches for it, and when he’s almost touching him, he sees Andrew’s fist relaxing and then his hand opening in a silent invitation for Neil to link their hands together.

Neil joins their hands and closes his eyes. He knows that Exy is a violent game, but everytime something happens to Andrew he feels like he’s going to lose his mind. He can’t stand the thought of losing him. Neil doesn't register the silence until Andrew squeezes his hand to focus him once again on the present, and when Neil opens his eyes he finds Andrew studying him.

“You're a mess,” Andrew tells him.

Neil sighs and sits in the chair. “Yeah," he says and when he resumes looking back at Andrew he adds. “What else is new?”

He sees the twitch of Andrew's mouth and can help but grin. Their easy banter is a sign that everything will indeed be just fine.

 


	2. Chapter 2

When breakfast gets delivered by the nurses, Andrew eyes his plate and turns his attention to Neil currently sitting by his side. “Go away,” Andrew tells him. “Go eat something and then come back.“

“I’m fi—” Neil starts.

“You haven’t left this room since you arrived last night,” Andrew interrupts him, pointing his plastic spoon at Neil. “Go now, before I stab you.”

Neil eyes the spoon and snorts. “With that?”

Andrew ignores his question and chooses instead to glare at Neil until he gets up. “Bring me something from the vending machine,” Andrew tells him when Neil reaches the door.

Neil nods once to indicate that he heard, he doesn’t ask what Andrew wants him to bring, but he’ll make sure to find him some type of chocolate. “I’ll see what I can find,” Neil says, bringing two fingers to his forehead in a mocking salute before he exits.

When Neil steps into the corridor he finds the others still in the same spot as earlier, as soon as they notice him Allison stands up. “I’m going to have a conversation with Neil,” she informs the others while looking at Neil with a fierce smile.

Neil takes a deep breath; he’s not surprised by this outcome, he suspected that he would be cornered for some answers soon so he just wants to get it over with. “I’m just going to grab some food,” Neil informs her once she stops at his side.

“Look at that, you finally started to take better care of yourself,” she says.

“Andrew kicked me out of the room until I eat so…” Neil trails off as they start to walk into the corridor to take the stairs to the main floor, but regrets it as soon as he sees her grinning.

“And I keep getting more and more surprised by your monster everyday,” she comments.

In a flash Neil starts to feel anger building up on him, so he starts to jog down the stairs to try and calm himself but it doesn’t quite work. And once she meets up with him at the end he can no longer restrain himself, he was never good at keeping his mouth shut. “I’ve told you plenty of times before to stop calling him that.”

She passes him and opens the door to the main area, then she holds the door for him and gives him a devilish smile. “Oh, I know. I just do it to piss you off.”

“Fuck off, Allison, I really don’t need your shit today,” Neil spits as he passes her to scan the place in search of some source of food. Once he spots a vending machine nearby he starts to walk in it’s direction.

She sighs and trails after him, and once they reach the machine she casually leans against it, looking at her perfectly manicured hands. “Fine, let’s talk about something else.” She pauses as Neil starts to put money into the machine. She sees him eyeing the products and then press the buttons for a sandwich to get out. “How about you tell me how you got married.”

“How about we talk about something else?” Neil asks back as he grabs the sandwich and puts more money into the machine. “What are you even doing in here?”

“Don’t ask stupid questions; I’m here for you.”

_Family_ , Neil thinks as Allison’s hand squeezes his arm for a second. She didn’t have to come here - especially because she and Andrew don’t really talk to each other - but she came anyway to give Neil support. “Thanks,” he tells her, not knowing how to better express himself on how much her being here actually means to him.

“And this isn’t what I was thinking when you said you came to grab some food,” she says looking disapprovingly to the plain sandwich. ”There’s a coffee shop near the hospital entrance.”

“This is fine,” Neil murmurs as they both watch the chocolate drop. He simply doesn’t want to take too long to get back to Andrew.

“Come on, I need some details.”

Neil grabs the chocolate and gives her an unimpressed look. But he’s met with Allison’s intense expression and gives in. “Fine, what do you want to know?”

Allison starts to smile again by having Neil giving in. “Who proposed?” she asks when they start to walk back.

“I guess you can say Andrew,” Neil answers, “he just asked me what I thought about it, and two weeks later we signed the papers.”

Allison stays quiet until they reach the stairs. “Why?” She asks him and grabs his arm to stop him from continuing to climb the stairs. “Look, I’m happy for you but I didn’t imagine Andrew, or you for that matter, as the type to get married.“

“Me neither, but…” Neil takes a deep breath. “Remember that accident I had almost two years ago, that I stayed in the ICU for a few days and no one knew how I was because I had no family, so no one was allowed to see me?” Allison nods and Neil continues, “Andrew was pissed because of it, we both were. So last year we talked about it and decided to get married so that things like that wouldn’t happen again.”

Alison stays quiet for a few moments processing that information. Then a tentative smile returns to her face. “I’m happy for you, you know?” She squeezes his arm for a second before letting him go. “I might not understand Andrew, but I know that he cares about you, and I know how important he is to you.”

Neil grins at her and opens his sandwich. They walk back the rest of the way in comfortable silence and he barely registers the taste of the food in his mouth as he eats. Once they reach the others, Allison returns to her chair and starts typing on her phone, most likely informing Renee about what he just told her, and Neil takes the seat next to Matt.

“How are you holding up?” Matt asks.

Neil shrugs. “Fine,” he tells him and eats the last bite of his sandwich.

They all share a look of annoyance at his standard answer and Dan clears her throat. “Wymack wants to know where your phone is.”

“Oh, in my car?” Neil answers thinking that in the rush to get to Andrew he must have left it there. “I’m assuming you already gave him an update?”

“Of course.”

“Kevin sent me a text, so he already knows Andrew is gonna be fine,” Nicky starts, “and I sent one to Aaron as well,” he pauses, and shifts from leaning against Erik to share a look with Matt. “Oh, and Kevin also asked me to deliver a message.”

“What did he say?” Neil asks even though he can already guess what it is.

“He said for you not to do anything stupid,” Nicky tells him with a grin.

“And I agree with him,” Matt says seriously.

“I won’t,” Neil answers and clenches his fists. It’s situations like this that make him want to call his uncle and ask for a favor. But he won’t do it; a favor like that would could cost him a great deal, and Andrew would kill him once he found out about it. ”I’ll wait until I find him on the court to kick his ass,” he adds, and grins at Dan’s hum of approval.

“How lucky was it that he made Andrew pass out with that hit that threw him to the wall?” Nicky comments.

“He would have taken care of that asshole in a second if it wasn’t for that.” Matt says with a grin.

“Yeah,” Neil agrees, the images of what happened in the match replaying in his head once again. Andrew doesn’t take shit like that from anyone, they all know it. So whatever happens to the former Raven is deserved, it’s Andrew that worries him at the moment. Neil decides it’s time to go back to him so he stands and clears his throat. “I should get back to Andrew now.”

“Yeah go ahead; visiting hours start in about an hour so we’ll join you soon,” Nicky says.

Neil nods, and starts to walk away in the direction of Andrew’s bedroom. Once he enters, Andrew’s eyes immediately open to stare back at him. He was obviously tired and tried to rest while Neil wasn’t in the room. Neil knows better than to say anything about it - he knows that if Andrew needs the rest he’ll go back to sleep once he sees that it’s only Neil entering, but Andrew starts to adjust himself so he’s properly sitting on the bed, and once Neil is close enough to Andrew he gives him the Kit Kat.

Andrew doesn’t waste a second before he’s opening the package. “Are they done with the questions?” he asks once he swallows the first bite.

“Have you met them?” Neil sighs and sits in the chair next to the bed. “They sent Allison to do the early interrogation as usual,” he says, studying Andrew while he eats. Of course he had thrown Neil outside so that the others could have enough time question him.

“Oh I’m sure she must be loving this since it will provide them great betting opportunities,” Andrew tells him with a blank expression. Neil still doesn’t like when the others make bets about them, but since he knows that Andrew is probably right, so he chooses not to comment.

Once Andrew finishes devouring the chocolate, Neil takes a deep breath before speaking. “I was watching the game yesterday.”

“Of course you were.”

Neil clenches his fists before he continues. “And I saw the whole attack.”

“Your point?” Andrew asks him.

“It looked pretty bad Andrew; you scared the shit out of me,” Neil admits, and gets up to be closer, he puts his hands in the bed for support and stares at Andrew to let those words - the truth - sink in. Once he sees Andrew’s shoulders relaxing, Neil adds. “Do you have a problem with it?”

“Your entire existence has been a problem since I first met you,” Andrew says matter-of-factly.

Neil notices the little twitch on his mouth and rolls his eyes, deciding not to comment. He brings one hand to slowly run over his face and when he looks to the side he finds Andrew already studying him. “Your close calls are getting old,” Neil tells him, sounding tired, still thinking of last night.

“Oh really?” Andrew starts, not looking impressed. “Stop mimicking what I tell you.”

“Why? Don’t like what you hear?” Neil replies mockingly.

“Shut up.”

“Make me.”

“Come a little closer,” Andrew says, ”and I will.”

Neil leans towards him and stops when his lips are only an inch away from Andrew’s. He closes his eyes and not a moment later he feels Andrew’s lips crash against his. Neil hums his approval and lets Andrew deepen the kiss. He lets himself forget where they are and why, and focuses purely on Andrew kissing him like his life depended on it.

When Andrew ends the kiss, his hand comes to rest on Neil’s neck to ground him, to steady him, like he has done countless times before. “You’re an idiot.”

Neil starts to smile when he brings his hand to Andrew’s hair, he lets his fingers hold onto it and then he brings their foreheads together. The closeness calms him. “Yet, you still keep me around,” he points out.

“No one likes a smart mouth,” Andrew replies, he grabs Neil by the chin when he sees him opening his mouth to answer back. “No, no, just shut up for now,” Andrew tells him in a low tone, while looking him in the eyes, and after a few moments of studying Neil he begins to frown. “Try to rest until the others get here; you look like shit.”

Neil rolls his eyes. “Thanks,” he says and goes back to sit on the chair once again. “I can clearly see now why I keep you around,” he adds sarcastically, and then he glances at Andrew, amused.

He knows, however, that Andrew is right. He’s exhausted, and it won’t be long before the others join them, so he lets his head rest on the bed like he did during the night.

“Just keep that mouth of yours close for now so we can both rest,” Andrew tells him, and after a moment Neil feels Andrew’s hand slowly going through his hair.

Neil lets himself relax, closing his eyes and concentrating on the familiar touch of Andrew, and on the soft sound of his breathing to reassure him that Andrew is right here with him. And that with a little bit of time he’s going to be alright.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr [@cosyblack ](http://cosyblack.tumblr.com) <3


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